It was another glorious day in Eden, and Steve was up early enjoying the peace. The sudden happening with John and Lisa had given him food for thought. He could see how happy they were at being free from their accepted workaday roles. He had also noticed how easily Tristran had replaced John. There were lots of other youngsters coming up behind the old guard now, so maybe it was time for a change. These and other things were going through his mind when..."Steve, are you there?" It was Bill's voice coming out of the radio.

"Bill, you're up early this morning, what can I do for you?"

"Southgate have made contact, they want to talk to you when you have time."

"Hmm sounds a little ominous Bill, I'll be there directly. Out."

"What is it Hun?" Clare asked as she entered the room.

"It's Southgate Sweetie, they've made contact and want to talk to me."

"Sounds ominous," Clare said, straight faced, causing Steve to smile.

They decided to walk to Moon Base as it was such a pleasant morning. Birds were singing, and the air was still enough so that they could hear the distant lowing of cattle and baaing of sheep.

"I think I know what's coming," Steve said, as they walked.

"Me too," Clare answered, "what are you going to do about it?" Steve didn't speak for some time, but just walked on with the sound of the gra.s.s under their feet.

"I'll have to go fetch them I suppose," he said, eventually.

"I knew you would," Clare said, squeezing his hand, "you're just a big softy really."

He laughed, because she was right, he had become softer as the years had pa.s.sed.

"Wanna' come with me doll face," he said, in his best Humphrey Bogart voice. Clare jumped on him almost knocking him over, "Do you mean it? I'd love to come with you."

Steve couldn't get another word in after that.

They reached the base where Bill was waiting for them.

"Did they say what they wanted Bill?"

"No, not to me Steve, they want to talk to you, it must be serious I guess."

Bill left them at the entrance to the old command centre and went about his business. Steve took the mic, "h.e.l.lo Southgate, this is Eden, come in, over." He waited, and several moments later Jake came on line.

"Hi Steve, thanks for getting back to us, we've a favour to ask."

"I know what it is Jake, you want to come back, is that it?"

"No Steve...We want to come home."

Steve was touched by the correction, and if he had had any doubts before about going to get them, they were dispelled now.

"Sure thing buddy," he said, "we've missed you guys too. You'll have to leave it with us whilst we figure out how we're going to pull it off, but we'll put all our efforts into it right away."

"Thanks Steve, it's good to hear you say that. By the way, there'll be nine of us if that's OK by you, young Sarah Thomas has attached herself to Zeek and wild horses won't make her let go."

"Understood Jake, tell the Thomas family they'll be welcome here in Eden. Over and out."

Clare had been silently listening to all this and said, "It must be really bad down there."

"I know Sweetie, I felt it too."

The walk back to the settlement was much quicker than the outward trip. It seemed they both had a new purpose now, and somehow, they knew it was urgent.

On reaching the settlement, Steve went straight to talk to Tris in engineering. "I don't want to have to land the main ship on Earth Tris, so we need a solution, something like the glider, only powered. And it needs to hold nine, or make two trips."

Tris just smiled, enjoying the challenge. "OK Mr. Forester, I'll get right on it."

"Tris, did you call John Mr. Hammond?"

"No, I called him John."

"Then call me Steve...OK?"

"Sure thing Steve," Tris replied and Steve left.

Jake returned to the others, gathered around the fire, and they all looked at him in antic.i.p.ation. Jake sat down and deliberately looked at them in turn, "It's OK folks, we're going home."

He had to wait for the noise to subside before going on. "They are starting work on it straight-away, but it may take some time before they can build the ship. Steve won't want to risk landing the big ship here, so my guess is they'll make something smaller that can carry us all into orbit. In any case, they'll let us know as and when things happen."

The group remained very excited and chatted away about the forthcoming adventure. Zeek seemed best able to tell the children what it might be like, he seemed to have a way with them that the others lacked.

Jake and the other adults got together later to discuss how they would spend their time whilst waiting for the ship to arrive.

"We could take a trip and see if there are any other survivors," Betty said, "after all, we have the berries...It would be a shame to waste them."

"Nice thought Betts," Martha said, "but we couldn't do a very thorough search in the short time we have."

"We could split into two groups," Jake interrupted, "that way we could search in two directions at once."

The Thomases were not keen to go looking for other humans after what they had seen, so it was decided that they would stay and maintain radio contact with Eden, and begin packing up their things. The search would start as soon as supplies could be put together, and would last for two weeks. One week out, the other back. Zeek and Betty would go south, and Jake and Martha would go north. They would make a circular route ending back up at the cabins. Everyone agreed the plan, and Jake radioed Eden to let them know.Two days later they set off on their respective journeys, Jake having the radio from the glider. Sarah cried as she waved goodbye to Zeek, they were soon out of sight and lost in the trees. Jake and Martha marched around the edge of the lake until they too were lost form sight in the forest. The Thomases settled down to their normal daily routine. "Seems odd without them," Mary said, "I hope they'll be all right, they really don't know what's in store for them out there."

"Don't worry," Dave replied, "they can take care of themselves."

Mary smiled, but she was not convinced. Memories of what she had seen in their travels began to flood her mind. No, she was not convinced at all that they could take care of themselves.

Chapter Nineteen.

Chapter 10.

The Search The walk around the edge of the lake was pleasant enough, although it was very cold. The water was crystal clear, much as you'd expect from a lake high in the mountains. The peaks were still as beautiful as ever, capped with snow and reflecting in the stillness of the water.

"You don't see sights like that on the Moon," Martha said, pointing up.

Jake nodded, "It sure is pretty up here, but I miss the constant warm climate of Eden, maybe I'm getting old."

This last comment brought a smile to both their faces. Since the berries had come on the scene, everyone seemed to be getting younger, not older. Perhaps they just felt it, but Jake was certainly aware that Martha seemed to be looking more radiant every day. He made a mental note to keep this trip professional, at least until they got back to Eden.

Before entering the tree line, they turned to look back towards the cabins. They were already a long way away and hidden, but they could see the break in the trees where the glider had sliced a path through on landing.

"You know, to folk down here, we might appear to be odd, almost alien. They have so little, and we came in a craft that is not of this world. They get sick, and we have 'miracle working' berries that bring people back to life. We need to be careful Martha, I'm not so sure now that this was such a good idea."

She liked the way he said her name, and that he was concerned for her. 'This trip has started well,' she thought, but didn't say it. They entered the trees leaving the lake behind, not knowing what lay ahead of them.

The going was a little tough for Zeek and Betty. There were no real paths, so Zeek was making his own as he went, with Betty close behind. This trip had really been Betty's idea, Zeek had only agreed to go to stop her going alone. He hadn't told her so, but he was not exactly enjoying himself at this precise moment in time: pushing branches out of the way and slipping on moss-covered tree roots. The atmosphere was cold and damp, and smelled of must or mildew, and even though it was early afternoon, it was unusually dark. Nothing stirred, and apart from Zeek huffing and puffing, it was almost dead quiet. If there were any animals around, they would have heard Zeek coming a mile off, so they saw and heard nothing.

"I wonder how far we've come?" Zeek said, after what seemed like several hours travelling.

"Hard to say," Betty replied, "there are no land-marks to get a reference. Let's give it one more hour before making camp. We may find somewhere more suitable than this."

"Ok Betts, one more hour."

That last hour seemed like three to Zeek, who was feeling very tired. He was mightily relieved when they entered a small clearing with some gra.s.s. Without asking, he slipped his pack off his back and flopped down onto it.

"Please miss, can we make camp here?" he said, in his best schoolboy voice.

"Sure we can sonny," she replied, smiling. Betty slipped her pack off, and began to open it to remove the tent. She noticed that Zeek was rather quiet.

"Are you all right?" she asked, seeing that he wasn't.

"I feel very odd," he answered, "my chest is tight, and it hurts when I breathe."

Betty became worried, she didn't want anything to happen while they were way out here. Zeek was turning pale and clutching his chest, she recognised the symptoms of a heart attack, her father had died from one many years before. Instinctively she reached into her pack for the container of berries.

"I don't understand it Zeek, none of us have needed a second one."

Zeek was struggling for breath and having great difficulty speaking, but she heard him say, "I didn't take one."

"What! You mean you haven't had one at all? Why ever not?"

He struggled to say, "I didn't believe in them, I've never believed in G.o.d, so I thought they wouldn't work on me."

Betty was angry at his answer, "But Zeek, this is the tree of life, you don't have to believe, it just works. Even Adam and Eve could have taken it, and you know how naughty they were! G.o.d had to set a guard over it to stop them. Come on, I want you to eat one right now."

Zeek was in no fit state to argue with her, so he meekly opened his mouth and accepted the berry. It tasted like black currant in his mouth and was soon consumed.

"You just lie there whilst I make camp, you'll be better than ever before you know it."

It took Betty several minutes to get the camp set up; she did it without any effort. Zeek just watched as she performed all the necessary tasks with consummate ease, manhandling the heavy backpacks like they were filled with thin air. In no time at all she had a fire lit and some food cooking.

"Feeling better?" She asked.

"Now you come to mention it, I do. The pain has eased and I can breath again. What a Wally I've been, I could have taken one ages ago and been young again."

He stopped as he noticed her smiling at him. He'd not seen it before, but she was really rather cute in the firelight. Zeek was never slow to speak out.

"Hey!" He half shouted, "Strong and cute too, this I like!"

They both laughed, but Zeek flinched as he did so. They ate supper and drank hot coffee. Zeek was already in his sleeping bag and the fire was warm in the cold evening air. His eyes became heavy and sleep soon overtook him. Betty sat watching him sleep for a while before turning in herself.

"Good night you lovely man," she said, knowing he couldn't hear her. "Good night Lord." She closed her eyes and slept.

Jake awoke to absolute silence and he was cold. "Are you awake?" he called to Martha.

"Yes, the cold woke me up." Jake got up and began making a fire. "I can't believe how cold it is." He said, shivering. "To have such a big temperature drop in such a short distance is weird. I say we give it one more day, and if we don't find anything we'll head back."

"You'll get no argument from me," Martha replied, "there's definitely something strange about all this."

The smell of coffee was welcoming, so she got up and began to pack up the camp. It took a while to get the circulation going, but the activity soon warmed her up.

When everything was packed, they put out the fire and headed north. The trees thinned as they went, and they emerged from the forest onto open gra.s.sland. There was nothing as far as the eye could see, just open gra.s.s and gently rolling hills.

"Reminds me of home," Jake said, "except there should be cattle grazing."

"Perhaps there are no cattle now," Martha said, "it's probably too cold for them up here."

They set their sights on a distant hill, determining that if they hadn't seen anything by the time they reached it they would turn back. It looked to be best part of a days march to get there, so the idea fitted in with their earlier plans.

The gra.s.s crunched under their feet as they went. "Must have been a frost in the night," she said, her breath visible as she spoke.

Jake looked up, "I don't like the look of those clouds, it looks like snow."

Martha looked and concurred. It grew darker by the minute as they walked on. Within a few minutes it began to snow, lightly at first with just a dusting of white powder, but it grew heavier quite quickly. The sky became really dark, and the distant hill could no longer be seen.

"I think I've had enough of this," Jake said, turning towards Martha.

"Me too, let's go back." She said.

They turned and started back towards the forest, it looked a long way off, had they really been walking so fast? Without saying anything they picked up the pace. The wind began to blow and become steadily stronger, it was against them, and their packs were weighing them down. The cold was intense, and the snow began biting into their faces being driven by the wind. It was obvious that a blizzard was about to engulf them, so they started running, faster and faster as they became more aware of the danger. The snow lay thick on the ground, and was deepening rapidly, yet they were able to keep up their speed, even against the wind.

They reached the tree line and ran straight in. In just a few seconds they were clear of the snow, and the wind strength dropped dramatically. They stopped and turned to see what was happening behind them. The snow had already covered their tracks and visibility was almost zero.